A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET — SHOCKTOBER!

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More contemplative and thematically muscular than Wes Craven's 1984 original slasher flick, Samuel Bayer's updated version has a quieter surreal edge rooted more in suspense than in the former film's regular bloodletting.

That's not to say plenty of quarts of the red liquid don't flow freely from a group of teens who had the misfortune to have been molested by Freddie Kruger when he worked as a nursery school janitor a dozen years earlier.

Jackie Earle Haley breathes fearsome life into the horribly disfigured monster that lives in the dream-lives of his victims.

The movie has a sustained sense of morbid dread that's abetted by the narrative's adult characters who conspire against the truth of their own complicity in their children's sustained terror.

Subtle nods to films like "Psycho," "The Exorcist," and "The Shining" work to create a grotesque universe of the sleep deprived where nightmares nestle like Russian Dolls. Where Craven's film was campy, Bayer's movie is just plain dark.

Rated R. 95 mins. 

MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE — DEAD RECKONING PART ONE

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How the mighty have slipped.

"Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One" doesn't bode well for "Part Two."

With more plot holes than a colander, "Dead Reckoning" blows its bloated budget with a seemingly AI generated script that constantly repeats itself, as if to put a fine point on its manifold shortcomings.

Spectacle replaces storytelling.

This film's budget could have fed the people of Nicaragua for a couple of years.

So much for Nicaragua.

An extended pre-credit submarine sequence lays the groundwork for a silly McGuffin involving a pair of fancy keys that, when locked together, enable entry to an advanced AI system that threatens to take control of all humanity before you can sneeze.

Tricky mask disguises pulled from the original '60s era television series, that gave the movie franchise its basis, make for some fun character reversals.

Entertaining too are good old fashioned suspense sequences involving car chases, and a speeding Orient Express train that experiences serious problems with gravity involving a missing bridge.

Watch out for falling pianos.

Tom Cruise's Ethan Hunt doesn't interact in person with his team much. He's too busy running a maze of plot points that necessarily involve jumping, flying, and falling.

"Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One" is a fine excuse to sit in an air conditioned movie theater for a few hours in the midst of summer, but it's not as good as any of the franchise's predecessors.

Hopefully, the filmmakers have already shot part two of "Dead Reckoning" because Tom Cruise doesn't look like he'll have enough gas in the tank for anymore additions to this flailing spy thriller franchise.

Baked, battered, and fried; stick a fork in it. It's all uphill from here.

Rated PG-13. 163 mins.

 

DUNE

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A dishwater war narrative masquerading as sci-fi.

Pshaw.

Oh the battles fought in a desert.

Sound familiar Americans?

So much sand.

So much capitalism. 

"It Begins."

However there is no reason to believe that the filmmakers will finish what they started with this first installment in an ostensible "Dune" series of films.

As is Hollywood's way, they always promise something they never intend to deliver.

Some people are fooled into believing that because Denis Villeneuve is French, he must be some great director. 

Nothing could be further from the truth.

Look at "Blade Runner 2049." 

What a joke.

"Dune" is a fine thing to have projected on your wall (without sound) to add atmosphere to a party, but you couldn't call it much of a movie. 

Rated PG-13. 155 mins.